Messy advice

The Messy Church team have put together a 'Maximising the Mess' guide with reasons for you to register your Messy Church on our directory. It's got lots of important points that take into consideration the previous guides, so definitely take a read, because we'd love to have you as part of the ever-growing Messy Church community.

Messy Churches come in all different shapes and sizes, much like people! There is no magic formula for increasing the amount of people that roll through the doors. However, the Messy Church team have put together a 'Maximising the Mess' guide to help you increase your numbers and the relationship that you have with the community surrounding your church, in the hope you will be able to make the most of your Messy Church.

Over the years, Messy Church has grown hugely and we are now celebrating over 3000 churches that are part of the network. With the amount of registrations growing monthly, the amount of families attending this all-age ministry is surely growing too.
The team has decided to put together helpful 'Maximising the Mess' guides to help your families to be excited, ready to come back each month and for you to make the most of your Messy Church.

Many churches take part in a festival, fete or fair at which Messy Church features in some way. Examples might be the Big Church Day Out, the Royal Norfolk Show or one of the Fusion Festivals. Other opportunities to look out for might be events like farmers' markets, car boot sales, craft fairs, patronal festivals or other annual events. Running Messy Church at an open event like one of these is great fun and hugely rewarding but very different from holding it on a regular basis and it's worth bearing the differences in mind.

If you use images or photographs either on a website or in publicity material, you generally need to obtain copyright permission first. If you are using images on your website or publicity materials that you have found on Google (or equivalent) by searching, but where you have not looked for copyright information, you are likely in breach of copyright.

There will be exciting positive months when everything goes well, crowds are pawing at the door asking searching questions about the place of suffering in the world, and when every craft leads young and old into a deep relationship with God and with each other.

You can't run Messy Church on your own - you need a team. You often need a large team by church leadership standards. But don't panic: this simply means you are giving more people a chance to grow in their own discipleship as they serve in Messy Church.

Joining in! Doing stuff! Being a player, not a spectator! However you want to put it, it's really important to give everyone the chance to participate as much as possible in all parts of Messy Church as participation is a way for people to feel they belong, to learn and to stay engaged.
Participation in the welcome time
Is anyone hanging back, too shy to join in the board games or activities at the start? Have you got enough leaders to keep an eye open for newcomers and to join in alongside them?